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Anne's avatar

I loved everything about this episode. Every-thing.

Like a good play, it opens with a scene in which four people resolutely do not talk about what is currently breaking their hearts. Funnily enough, one of them is Ahn Jeong-won’s soulmate, two more are Ahn Jeong-won’s beloved women, and, of course, there’s Ahn Jeong-won himself. Some pattern here, don’t you think?

Over the last week, I’ve been thinking, this slice-of-life show is so good at being lifelike that we may sometimes forget that it is still a story, and any story has rules. Narratively, Jeong-won is one of the main characters of this story. And anything that happens *to* him, happens *for* him to learn, and grow, and change. In Season 1, he was the guy with all the important secrets and the inability to open up to the girl he liked. In Season 2, he’s getting the taste of his own medicine, big time.

For example, it’s his turn to cast pleading, longing looks at Gyeo-ul who is, by the way, an absolute badass. Showing up like that at the VIP ward to visit her future mother-in-law, uninvited and not formally introduced by her boyfriend - that was a surprise indeed. But we must brace ourselves for more heartbreak that is coming - the tension between the Wintergarden couple is already palpable, and it’s not of a good kind. Everything will end well, of course, but if Jeong-won really wants to solve this, this waiting for Gyeo-ul to tell him what’s wrong won’t work out. He knows what’s wrong, by the way - people don’t break ribs when tripping. Jeong-won just doesn’t want to confront it either, not really.

In my opinion, if he wants his girlfriend to speak with him earnestly, he should lead by example. Otherwise, there will always be more urgent things to do, patients, looking after the mom, not a good moment, not a good place, etc. After all, he was going to confess his feelings (or something) in S01E12 but never got around to it because of... reasons.

Which, surprisingly, brings me back to Ik-sun. Oh, how I missed this funny woman! When she appeared on the screen, I readily and hastily forgave her year-long absence. Because what is a year, when you have things to do, medical tests, and drills, and parents? Every new day, you concede the chance to speak to the person you parted with on bad terms a little more. You may miss them. You may want to fix it, but there are so many excuses not to do that right now - maybe later, or maybe it’s already too late. And then, if the feeling is mutual, and it permeates the fabric of the shared universe for a sufficient amount of time, fate may put you two together on a midnight bus. And make you recognize the feel of that person even when you are drunk, and sleepy, and hopeless. I cheered so hard at the bidulgi meeting. It was just what the doctor ordered. They can’t get away from that bus! Doesn’t mean they will talk... But the sheer amount of mutual exposure makes me gleeful.

Some people on the internet theorized that Ik-jun helped this happen, being the designated ticket-buyer of his technologically challenged friend. The preview gave me another impression, and I can’t get rid of the feeling that he loves his sister and his friend dearly, but he is not so keen on the idea of them being together. He must have his reasons too. And we are sure to learn more about them.

That’s what I have in my head at the moment. There are lots of more malformed ideas, and I’m looking forward to reading everyone’s thoughts on the episode, too. I sincerely hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did! :)

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AABattery's avatar

It is always a joy to come read your post and all the wonderful / insightful comments. Thank you for taking time to write even on a busy day.

What a monstrous episode indeed! So much was presented but I felt that it was still not long enough; I just want to see more, esp. when they stopped at the bus scene! 😢 As jam packed with content as this episode was, I do agree that so much as delivered with silence. And I have to give kudos to all the actors – they delivered all the emotions so well, including many scenes where they did not use any lines. I cried with Songhwa and felt the tension between WG, and the facial changes on Junwan and Iksun in the last scene were just amazing!

You described exactly how I felt about WG in this episode when you said there is a lingering uneasiness over time that demands attention. You can cut the air with a knife during their exchange in front of the elevator. I have heard comments about their communication barriers being caused by GU. While I totally agree that they have communication barriers, I felt that it was definitely two-sided: JW has his share in this very “oblique” communication style between them as well.

As much as my heart ached seeing that GU still struggled to open up to JW, I was even more disappointed seeing that JW did not share about Rosa with GU, and that she had to find out from the gossip circle. It is not that I do not understand the reason behind it, but how do you expect her to open up when you are not modeling it? I also wonder if GU does know how certain JW is about their future life together – him not having introduced her to Rosa, him not pushing her to go public with their relationship, and now her having to be the last person to find out about Rosa from people far removed from them – I can just imagine how insecure she might feel if she misinterprets all these.

Please note that I am not bashing JW in anyway; both GU and JW went through a hellish week and their minds (using GU’s words) were probably all over the place to think clearly before they acted. I think ShinLee are building up to something that would eventually push the needed communication between them - I believe JW loves her too much to ever allow them be drifted apart without putting up a big fight, so same here, I will be grabbing the front row seat w/ chips in hand to watch when it happens – but as a huge WG fan, I am just selfishly disappointed with the distance I felt in this episode, especially since I had hoped that this double mommy whammy turn of events would push them closer.

Their interactions made me think about how we may want to love and be loved differently. They both appear to love each other very much, both want the other to share things, good or bad, openly with him / her, but when it comes for themselves sharing their own things, they become timid and worrying about burdening the other. I wonder as they both want to love as “protectors” that shelter each other from harms, they forget that they themselves actually want to be treated as “partners” whom the other can feel free to unload and just talk carefreely to.

And about GU, I also wonder if she is not unwilling to share, but maybe she herself is still trying to process what has been going on, either things that just happened, or some past experiences she is now just recognizing what they truly are. If her head is still all over the place, maybe she needs to first process before she can articulate. Yes, maybe one can say “JW does not need clear articulation from you; he just wants you to share everything, and he can process with you”, but remember that this is GU, not JW who grew up in a household that thrived on all those open and free-flowing little chats. She needs time, but let’s hope she is not taking too long before their relationship is permanently damaged.

I am now really curious to find out what GU's backstory is. While all signs appear to point to DV, something is still not adding up to me with how little sensitivity GU had when facing potential signs of abuse in both seasons. It is also strange that all dialogues appear to stay muted about her father. We know from the call with her mom that there is an Appa, but it seems that by Ep8 there is a shared understanding of his absence. I look forward to seeing how all these answers would be unveiled in the upcoming episodes... but really hoping it will all be solved in ep9 (I miss the sweet WG🤣)!

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